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Detector-based component model abstraction for microservice-based systems

Detector-based component model abstraction for microservice-based systems
Detector-based component model abstraction for microservice-based systems

One of the chief problems in software architecture is avoiding architecture model drift and erosion in all kinds of complex software systems. Microservice-based systems introduce new challenges in this context, as they often use a large variety of technologies in their latest iteration, and are changed and released very frequently. Existing solutions that can be used to reconstruct architecture models fall short in addressing these new challenges, as they cannot easily cope with continuous evolution, their accuracy is too low, and highly polyglot settings are not supported well. In this work, we report on a research study aiming to design a highly accurate architecture model abstraction approach for comprehending component architecture models of highly polyglot systems that can cope with continuous evolution. After analyzing the results of related studies, we found two possible architecture model abstraction approaches that meet the requirements of our study: an opportunistic, and a reusable semi-automatic detector-based approach. We have conducted an empirical case study for validation and comparison of the two approaches. We conclude that both detector approaches are feasible. In our case study, the reusable approach breaks even in terms of time and effort needed for establishing reuse, if modest reuse of detectors is possible, and is producing slightly more high quality and evolution-stable solutions than the opportunistic approach.

Architecture reconstruction, Detectors, Microservices, Modeling, Software architecture
0010-485X
2521-2551
Ntentos, Evangelos
4b886c8f-26de-4b8d-b5dd-51b6907f445c
Zdun, Uwe
bda05217-63f4-4edf-bc54-11de875a587d
Plakidas, Konstantinos
fccd732d-dadc-4f4d-a09f-43801dc83f30
Genfer, Patric
8a2aa528-4ad3-40cb-bf41-121cd3acac9c
Geiger, Sebastian
1137d63d-fca2-4925-b492-39da2aa2c84c
Meixner, Sebastian
66fd5a6f-b969-4b11-b648-41b7012c4e96
Hasselbring, Wilhelm
ee89c5c9-a900-40b1-82c1-552268cd01bd
et al.
Ntentos, Evangelos
4b886c8f-26de-4b8d-b5dd-51b6907f445c
Zdun, Uwe
bda05217-63f4-4edf-bc54-11de875a587d
Plakidas, Konstantinos
fccd732d-dadc-4f4d-a09f-43801dc83f30
Genfer, Patric
8a2aa528-4ad3-40cb-bf41-121cd3acac9c
Geiger, Sebastian
1137d63d-fca2-4925-b492-39da2aa2c84c
Meixner, Sebastian
66fd5a6f-b969-4b11-b648-41b7012c4e96
Hasselbring, Wilhelm
ee89c5c9-a900-40b1-82c1-552268cd01bd

Ntentos, Evangelos, Zdun, Uwe and Plakidas, Konstantinos , et al. (2021) Detector-based component model abstraction for microservice-based systems. Computing, 103 (11), 2521-2551. (doi:10.1007/s00607-021-01002-z).

Record type: Article

Abstract

One of the chief problems in software architecture is avoiding architecture model drift and erosion in all kinds of complex software systems. Microservice-based systems introduce new challenges in this context, as they often use a large variety of technologies in their latest iteration, and are changed and released very frequently. Existing solutions that can be used to reconstruct architecture models fall short in addressing these new challenges, as they cannot easily cope with continuous evolution, their accuracy is too low, and highly polyglot settings are not supported well. In this work, we report on a research study aiming to design a highly accurate architecture model abstraction approach for comprehending component architecture models of highly polyglot systems that can cope with continuous evolution. After analyzing the results of related studies, we found two possible architecture model abstraction approaches that meet the requirements of our study: an opportunistic, and a reusable semi-automatic detector-based approach. We have conducted an empirical case study for validation and comparison of the two approaches. We conclude that both detector approaches are feasible. In our case study, the reusable approach breaks even in terms of time and effort needed for establishing reuse, if modest reuse of detectors is possible, and is producing slightly more high quality and evolution-stable solutions than the opportunistic approach.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 August 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 August 2021
Published date: November 2021
Keywords: Architecture reconstruction, Detectors, Microservices, Modeling, Software architecture

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488767
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488767
ISSN: 0010-485X
PURE UUID: e348e7e6-d11e-46b4-9fb0-fd6eccc13c44
ORCID for Wilhelm Hasselbring: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6625-4335

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Date deposited: 05 Apr 2024 16:37
Last modified: 10 Apr 2024 02:15

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Contributors

Author: Evangelos Ntentos
Author: Uwe Zdun
Author: Konstantinos Plakidas
Author: Patric Genfer
Author: Sebastian Geiger
Author: Sebastian Meixner
Author: Wilhelm Hasselbring ORCID iD
Corporate Author: et al.

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